Happy to be on a island in the sun

INSTEAD of putting a fight for the World Cup of World Cup games, Codemasters seems content to put in a stick together job in the hope of catching some glory. Admittedly, for the money you are getting a lot of game, but when it is this bad that sort of thinking seems to be redundant.

The game is split into two sections - the match and the training. This would be slightly good, even brilliant, if the training affected the skill and abilities of the players on the pitch, but it seems more a case of the Daley Thompsons.

About all that can be said for the match is that the graphics are not that bad. Well, not horrendously bad anyway. Until they move that is. At least it has a four player mode, if you can find four people bored enough.

Italia '90£4.99Codemasters

Sound

Graphics

Gameplay

Value

Overall - 47%

CODEMASTERS £4.99 * Joystick or Keyboard

There are bound to be more of these in the run to the World Cup, so get used to them. This one offers four players the chance to take part in the finals as I as having a bash at some circuit training and indulging in some outdoor skill practice.

The actual match section is viewed from almost above and allows the player control of the nearest team member to the ball - you can switch to another player by hitting the fire button. The game looks all right but plays awfully badly. The sluggishness you can live with and you can even put up with the weird scroll, which sometimes lags far behind the action - but what really screws the game up is the inability to alter the direction of your player once you have pressed the fire button for a shot.

Spend a few minutes learning how to get round that, though, and the three matches you play in solo mode become ridiculously easy to win. Even with a couple of mates playing, it is really not up to much.

The circuit training and the skill practice do little to redeem the game, which is also a shame. The nicest thing to be said is that Codemasters have not, at least, overcharged for the game.

Codemasters/£4.99 Amiga/ST

David: With the World Cup being played in Italy this Summer, it was a pretty safe bet to expect eight trillion footie games to appear on the market. Here's the Codies' offering, cunningly title Italia '90.

It's actually two games in one, for not only is there the usual arcade footy game where you play against the computer or a chum, or you and a chum both play the computer, but also a training game. This has an indoor part where you joystick waggle against the clock or a pal, performing sit-ups, press-ups, et cetera, and an outdoor section where you can run the pitch, dribble around cones and practice penalties (both as keeper and taker).

Okay so the matchplay may be a poor man's Kick Off and has a few graphic glitches, but with extra options, an additional game, and at a quarter of the price of the aforementioned classic, it's not bad at all.